Abstract

Simple and Convenient Visible Spectrophotometric Assay of Atomoxetine Hydrochloride in Bulk Drug and Pharmaceutical Preparations

Author(s): K. Raghubabu, L. Shanti Swarup, B. Kalyana Ramu and M. N. Rao, C. Ramdas

Two direct, simple and sensitive visible spectrophotometric methods (M1 & M2) are described for the assay of atomoxetine hydrochloride in pure and solid dosage forms. The method M1 involves oxidative coupling of atomoxetine with brucine in presence of sodium meta periodate and purple red colored species is formed and exhibits absorption maxima at 520.5 nm. The method M2 is based on the formation of yellowish brown colored species by the drug with Folin reagent and exhibits absorption maxima at 450.6 nm. Regression analysis of Beer-Lambert plots showed good correlation in the concentration ranges (4.0-20) μg/mL for method M1, (16-48) μg/mL for method M2 respectively. The proposed methods are applied to commercial available tablets and the results are statistically compared with those obtained by the UV reference method and validated by recovery studies. The results are found satisfactory and reproducible. These methods are applied successfully for the estimation of the atomoxetine hydrochloride in the presence of other ingredients that are usually present in dosage forms. These methods offer the advantages of rapidity, simplicity and sensitivity and normal cost and can be easily applied to resourcepoor settings without the need for expensive instrumentation and reagents.